Original subtitles

To capture the extraordinary story of the emperor penguins,

the Dynasties team had to travel to the end of the Earth.

Neumayer research station will be home to the film crew

for nearly a year.

There's about 70 tonnes worth of food.

We've got about 15 boxes of white cabbage.

Neumayer has everything they need.

But it's a different world outside.

It's really easy to feel quite comfortable inside, and...

This place, it's...

wild, really wild.

It's worth reminding ourselves of that every now and again.

Oh, I've got to go inside!

The crew need five layers of clothing before they can even

think of leaving the base.

As the final plane departs, they know that it'll be the last

till winter is over in eight months' time.

Now the plane's just left and that's us on our own, now.

Nobody will be coming in case something happened.

We are now all by ourselves.

When the team head out to explore, they discover

just how careful they'll have to be working in this hostile world.

We've come across an enormous crack,

so we're probably on an unsafe piece of ice at the moment.

Oh, my God!

Did you just hear that?

A deep crack in the edge of the ice shelf like this

can be extremely dangerous.

Oh, my word, it just goes straight down.

This area's definitely not safe.

An incredible reminder of how...

..how unpredictable this place is.

It's just mind-blowing.

Six miles from the station, the permanent ice meets the ocean.

This is where the penguins will soon be heading.

Once the sea is frozen, the team will have to cross

the treacherous, newly-formed ice to reach them.

I've found a decent spot for the, uh, for the guys to lower me down

onto the sea ice for the first time.

So Will's going to act as a bit of a safety man for me,

in case anything goes wrong.

These are our first few steps onto the sea ice.

It definitely feels a bit nerve-racking,

knowing that there's a couple of hundred meters

of water underneath us.

To find a safe route, the crew must check the depth of the ice

all the way.

Ice around 30 centimetres and above is stable.

This is a great moment for us.

We finally made it to the colony.

Yeah, it's really special.

When it's this still and there's this many birds in front of you,

And...

It makes the place look absolutely beautiful.

A few weeks later, the sun sets for the last time,

and Antarctica reveals its harsher side.

We think it's probably minus 50.

The sun is somewhere below the horizon.

It still won't be visible for another...

..six weeks, probably.

Erm, so this is something that we're going to have to get used to.

It's easier said than done.

Oh, God!

And then, the storms come.

We've got proper, proper weather now,

and really, really strong winds.

The colony's just in front of us.

Sometimes, it disappears behind the snow.

It's been hovering around 100kph now, since this picked up.

What these penguins are having to put up with out there,

it's just mind-blowing.

We're finally coming to the end of this storm.

There's all sorts of weird rattling sounds and...

To be quite honest, I don't know how this station

manages to stay standing.

Finally, the sun returns,

but the storms continue.

A break in the weather reveals something the team had not expected.

But I can hear a heck of a lot of noise coming

from just over the brow.

Oh, man!

Oh, my word.

There are... There are birds down there with chicks.

Film crews have to capture events as they unfold,

whatever their feelings.

I know it's natural, but it's, um...

It's bloody hard to watch.

Oh, my word.

I think we're just going to have to observe them for a bit

and see exactly what's happening.

We've come back up onto the top because the weather is coming in

again and we were just about to pack up,

and an adult with a chick on its feet managed to

make its way up.

It's amazing, it's using its beak, and then when it got to this last

little lip, erm, its wings.

Oh, man, if only the other 50 in there could do the same.

Hopefully the weather will clear again tomorrow and we can get back

down here, and fingers crossed, there'll be a few less birds

in this hole.

Two days later, the weather allows the team to return to the colony.

Already, the gully has claimed more casualties.

The team decide to act.

We've given it a lot of thought.

We've decided that we are definitely going to dig a shallow ramp

that they will hopefully use.

It's very rare for the film crew to intervene.

But they realise that they may be able to save at least some

of these birds simply by digging a few steps in the ice.

Oh, man! Will, look.

Oh, my goodness.

We were literally just about to leave but

the first birds are definitely making their way out,

which is brilliant.

So, hopefully, they'll just make their way back to the colony

and them and their chicks will have a much better chance

of survival, because there's no chance that they were going

to survive down there at all.

The crew follow the chicks as they grow up.

And after months with the emperors,

their time in Antarctica is finally coming to a close.

We're coming to the end of the trip now, and, um...

Yeah, we've had a...

We've had an amazing year, and...

I'm obviously desperate to get home.

But there's, um...

There's an odd part of me that doesn't want to leave.

What a privilege, eh?

Next time:

A lioness battles against the odds...

..to protect her family.